Adam's IMPORTANT IRISH ART 31 MAY 2023

60 43 BASIL BLACKSHAW RUA HRHA (1932-2016) Running Man Oil on canvas, 152 x 122cm (59¾ x 48”) Provenance: From the artist’s estate € 12,000 - 16,000 Universally admired despite what some might re- gard as the challenging nature of a great deal of his work, Basil Blackshaw often seemed to nurture either one of two strong inclinations: one was to achieve the guileless honesty of a child in how he drew and painted, avoiding all the signs of adult visual sophis- tication. The other, not too dissimilar, was to make a satisfying painting while at the same time entirely nullifying the conventional trappings of an image. As it happens, both tendencies depended on his excep- tional conventional abilities, pressed into service to bypass and transcend those same abilities. And both could involve writing across the composition, like an actor breaking the fourth wall. No matter what he was doing, he never shed the canny instincts of a gifted picture-maker. His running figure is a fine compendium of these var- ious characteristics. The figure is both simple, scant on detail and painted in an unmodelled red ochre. But it’s also subtle, rendered in a manner that distinctly recalls classical Greek art (though wearing contem- porary white running shoes, presumably Nike) and sensitively observed so that the attitude, the move- ment, feel exactly right. The background, display- ing Blackshaw’s mastery with shades of grey and his sheer love of paint, could be a cast concrete wall, and the unruly text an ambiguous mix of applied and graf- fitied lettering. The son of a horse trainer, and thoroughly at home in a rural world of horses, dogs and farmyards, Black- shaw was feted as a prodigy but backed away from a conventional artistic career trajectory, quietly quit- ting a teaching job (he never returned after a cold snap temporarily closed the school) and moving from the city back to the country. His core subject matter included animals, the human figure (Jude Stephens was his long-term model), landscape and portrait subjects. He excelled in all areas and built a wide, faithful following, as well as being greatly esteemed by his peers. Aiden Dunne, April 2023